NVG
by Cowjump
Summary: Yang believed that her most recent purchase would glean insight into her partner's low-light strategies. Unfortunately, such knowledge was not found. This is the story of Yang's learning experience in dealing with her purchase, the environment, and a Faunus.


Thank you for allowing this story the opportunity to entertain. This was a tale that came to me on a whim—originally, a superfluous idea that seemed trite and one I allowed myself to forget. However, the idea came back and grew into a story in and of itself. This is the result of one night's planning, deliberation, and writing.

I hope you enjoy.

* * *

_NVG_

It was the dead of night in Team RWBY's dorm room and under normal circumstances all of its members would have been asleep at this unrecognizable hour. It is to say that it was "the dead of night" rather than "the middle of the night" because the latter phrase connotes some validating factor—a simple noise or annoying light from some small device—existing in the environment that would give anyone who was awake the illusion of normalcy. "The dead of night" is a rather cold, bleak phrase that was incredibly fitting for their current setting. Yang had lowered the temperature by way of the room's air conditioning unit before going to sleep, reasoning that because her teammates had blankets, they would be able to stay warm while she stayed cool (an unfortunate necessity for her unrelenting aura). To maintain this low temperature, the air conditioning unit was unable to pause even for a moment, leaving its constant whirring to suffocate all other sounds in the room, effectively creating white noise that was neither perceivable nor ignorable. To the young Faunus who was unfortunately awake during these dreadful circumstances, the room was agonizingly cold, dark, and silent.

Unfortunately, Blake had been troubled by the combination of these factors and thusly was not the least bit tired. She had slept through colder climates and louder noises before but it was only because of the concurrence of these stimuli that she was unable to sleep. The dark did not persuade her mind into unconsciousness due to her inherent night vision making the room appear as detailed as it was during the day. She could see Weiss holding her blankets close on the opposite lower bunk while her leader above entirely hid underneath her own covers, sacrificing air circulation for warmth. Blake would admit that she felt cold, but could not say whether it was the temperature or the noise that was more irksome. Her naturally acute ocular and auditory senses left her unable to relax because of their need to perceive everything around them, causing every small movement and sound to catch her attention; but even then, these occurrences were few and far between. She was becoming oddly bored due to her inability to neither sleep nor focus on anything other than the whirring noise.

Her ire would fester and her uncharacteristic need for distraction would grow until a fortunate noise came from above. Blake's Faunus traits perked at what sounded like Yang quietly searching through something that would later be found to be a cardboard box. She did not immediately question the action as she was unsure if she was hallucinating from undiscovered exhaustion; however, she heard the noise again. It was soon clear to her that the girl above was trying to not draw attention to whatever it was she was doing. The sounds of Yang's actions grew louder and less inhibited for a moment before they stopped entirely. Blake heard a muted snicker from above, confirming her suspicions that Yang was awake and up to something. She was relieved to have found the desired distraction so quickly, but was ever so slightly unsure of her partner's laugh.

"Hey, Blake?" Yang whispered from above. Two thoughts ran through Blake's mind at that moment: she wondered why Yang was torturing them so with the cold when she wasn't going to sleep and she was curious about what the noises above had been. "Are you up?"

She could have ignored her partner and kept trying to fall asleep, but her curiosity and need for distraction had reached a point where she automatically hummed in the affirmative with no forethought for the action. "Unfortunately," Blake quietly quipped. Again, Yang snickered. It was a devious laugh, devoid of any malice yet telling of the inevitable trouble it preluded. Understanding that sleep had become secondary on her list of priorities, Blake moved back on her bed so that she could sit up and await the conversation she expected to have with her partner.

A foreign tone sounded in the room—it was a shrill, elongated noise that made the young Faunus believe that some sort of electronic device was slowly powering on. Their beds creaked and Blake could see the depressed shape belonging to Yang's form move from the center of the bed above to its edge before a mass of blonde hair spilled down into view. Blake recoiled slightly, immediately startled by the unexpected sight she was met with. When she first saw Yang's hair, she had believed that the blonde was leaning down to say something and perhaps gauge the reaction afterward. However, it was now obvious the cause of her upside-down smirk had been the source of that unfamiliar noise and Blake's initial alarm.

The cause of her reaction was a black, metallic contraption that covered both of Yang's eyes. Protruding from this device was a single scope extended Blake's way. She assumed that it was through the scope's lens that Yang was looking at her, leading the Faunus to understand what her partner was wearing. "Whoa," Yang gasped, keeping one hand on her night vision goggles at all times. "So these things really do work. I can see everything! I mean, it's all a little green, but I can still see you." Blake had to force her expression to remain neutral. The blonde craned her neck around to look at the various objects around them, but her assisted gaze seemed to always return to the Faunus. Eventually, she asked, "Is this what you see all the time?" At this point, the Yang's speech showed no regard for quietness in this early hour.

Blake raised an eyebrow. "If you're asking if I see green every second of the day, then the answer is no." Yang returned to testing her newly acquired night vision on the items around them. As she looked to the bookcase beside their beds, Blake asked, "Where did you get those?"

"Eh," Yang sounded noncommittally, "I bought 'em." Perhaps Blake had phrased her question incorrectly, seeing as how the answer had not been what she expected, but there was always the possibility of her partner being purposefully dismissive. "Okay, yeah, these are pretty cool. I'm just like you now!" This was followed by a toothy grin and the plainly facetious question of, "Aren't you proud of me?"

Blake smirked and shook her head. The single lens was focused on her once again, giving her an idea of how she would show her partner that the acquired technology was not as effective as she might think. "Not yet," Blake said, humoring the blonde for the moment. "If you want to be able to use that on missions, you need to understand its limits." As she was saying this, she was slowly, nonchalantly sliding away from her partner and towards the wall. "Try to hit me."

The grin Yang had held faltered and quickly turned into a frown. "What?" she asked, understandably unaware of Blake's intentions.

"Try to hit me," Blake repeated. Her partner's frown deepened, causing the Faunus to suddenly realize the error in her phrasing. To correct herself, she continued. "Try to touch me. If you can't touch me from there, you won't be able to hit anything on a mission." Her altered diction seemed to ease Yang's discomfort, causing the blonde to nod in acceptance before extending an arm. Yang had a naturally long reach, allowing for her fighting style to be as effective as it was, but even a long reach was no match for the subtle backing away of her target. With a grunt, Yang poked at where she thought Blake had been. She missed by a noticeable few inches from the Faunus' perspective, but Blake was certain that her partner could not see this distance judging by her confused expression. Blake assumed that because of the single lens of the night vision goggles, Yang's depth perception would be nonexistent while she wore them. This was the cause of her retreat in a manner which would not be seen by her attentive partner. Yang grunted as she attempted to poke her again.

Blake smirked, satisfied with her avoidance of Yang's hand. However, this smirk fell away once the blonde grumbled something. The goggles were flipped up (rather, down with her current position), allowing Blake to meet her partner's frustrated gaze. She attempted to smirk again but before she could, Yang pushed forward and poked the young Faunus' forehead. It was the blonde's turn to smirk. "Got you. I win," she said as she flipped the goggles back down. "So, can we use these on missions now or what?"

There was not an opportunity to reply because the sound of blankets rustling came from the other side of the room. Both conscious girls looked to the other bunks and found Ruby peeking out from under her covers. Blake saw her leader's eyes widen and remove all traces of tiredness from her expression. It must have been frightening to her, waking up and suddenly seeing a single faintly reflective lens staring at her in the middle of her darkened room. This was believed by Blake because the young girl suddenly yelped before bolting off of her bed and towards the room's door. Weiss had begun to stir while Yang reached an arm out towards her sister, yelling, "Ruby, no!"

Unfortunately, the young leader did not hear the plea in time and turned the room's lights on. Yang immediately fell from her bunk, grasping feebly at the goggles as she attempted to pull them off. Her pained noises made Blake worry, causing her to look pointedly at Ruby's confused expression. Weiss growled as she brought herself to a sitting position on the side of her bed. Yang continued to groan and rub her eyes after she removed the device. "S-sorry, Yang!" Ruby meekly apologized. "I didn't know that was you. I thought you were a Cyclops for a second."

"Not funny," Yang sobbed before rolling over to bury her face in the carpet.

"Well, I certainly thought it was." Weiss had lost her fatigued expression and gained a look of satisfied amusement. "What's the matter? I thought you absorbed pain."

Her response came in the form of a muffled "Shut up!" from her downed teammate. This only caused the heiress' smirk to widen.

Seeing that Ruby and Weiss were not helping much at all, Blake pulled her covers off of herself so that she could take initiative over the situation. "Ruby," she began, "turn off the lights." The leader quickly obliged. "Now, you and Weiss go back to sleep. I'll take care of Yang." Blake moved off of her bed and knelt beside her partner, hesitant to pick her up until she was ready to be moved. Ruby climbed up to her bed as Weiss swiveled back into her previous position, keeping her gaze on Blake all the while. "Yang?" An annoyed grunt was the reply she was given. "I'm going to move you onto my bed, if that's all right. I don't think you're in any condition to climb right now." Yang began to push off of the carpet, keeping her eyes shut even when the room had returned to its darkened state. "Would you mind if I took your bed for the night?"

"Yeah, sure," Yang groaned as she was helped to her feet. Her balance was off, but that was to be expected and did not prove to be much of an issue. Just as quickly as Yang was picked up, she was seated on the bed that would be lent to her for the night. "Thanks, Blake. You're a lifesaver." The young Faunus merely smiled at this as she helped her partner adjust and move fully onto the bed. When Yang found a comfortable position atop the blankets, Blake turned to pick up the dropped goggles. However, she felt a hand grab her wrist. She turned back and found Yang looking at her, eyes open despite the obvious pain this caused. "Hey, Blake?" she asked. The questioned girl watched as her partner's expression seamlessly changed from hopeful and hesitant to outwardly relaxed yet confused. "Did my sister really just call me a big, one-eyed monster?"

For a moment, Blake believed something else was going to be said—perhaps something personal or eloquently gracious. Regardless, she smirked, finding the situation amusing. As she turned again to retrieve the device, Ruby squeaked from underneath her dome of blankets, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean it that way!" Yang quietly chuckled at this.

Unfortunately, when Blake turned back around, she found her partner wincing, her eyes clamped shut again. This caused a frown to descend upon the young Faunus' features. Keeping her eyes trained on Yang, Blake placed the goggles atop the bookcase before saying, "Good night, Yang."

As she pulled herself up to Yang's bunk, she heard her partner quietly reply, "'Night, Blake."

Before Blake could allow herself to settle into her temporary sleeping location, she had to deal with the open box that Yang had left behind at the foot of her bed. She believed that the goggles should have been put back into it first, but long-awaited tiredness had found her at last. She simply dropped the box onto the bookcase, hopefully beside the goggles and without keeping anyone else up. As soon as this final problem was dealt with, she pulled the covers that had amassed against the wall over herself and rested against Yang's pillow. She should have been prepared for the sensation, but Blake was surprised to find that underneath these sheets and atop her partner's mattress, the cold of the room could not affect her in the slightest. It was only because of the embracing warmth of Yang's former presence that Blake could smile and forget about the noises, darkness, and cold and be able to drift off to sleep without incident.

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Thank you for reading.

If you are new to my stories, I hope the writing does not come across as forced or excessively bombastic. I have been told by a few people on this site to "relax" and to "stop using a thesaurus." However, what you have read is how I usually write. I will take no offence if it does not fit your tastes; I just ask that you do not request the story to completely change based off of personal preference alone. I do not mind constructive criticism, but the insistence that the story be altered to use simpler terms or phrases is something of a pet peeve to me.

If you arrived at this story expecting the next chapter of Valence or the beginning of the promised short stories, then I apologize. Both are well underway. This was simply me writing something that was short and fun to refocus my efforts and take care of an idea that has been bugging me for a few weeks. I should also say that this story occurs within the universe of Valence, taking place between the invitation and the end of the school year. However, this story stands on its own and does not reference anything more than the relationship that blossoms within the novel. I hope that this can ease the gap between the last chapter and the next.

Once again, thank you for reading. Stay safe and stay tuned.


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